"oh, you're a commuter girl!"

Yes, yes. I am that. I am a "commuter" girl now, as a co-worker pointed out when he asked where I was living this summer. I am a girl who drives to a park and ride, gets on a bus, boards a ferry, and walks to work. And in the span of three days, I've experienced more public transportation than I ever have in my life combined. And I like to think that because someone mistook me for a local today that obviously means I must have the system DOWN. Right?

Last night I almost thought I was in over my head with the whole thing. The constant crowd of people on the streets even at 8pm on a Thursday, the amount of time it takes to get places and amount of scheduling that must be done to get where you need to be, the noise, the traffic, the sketchier people under tunnels and really just everywhere- I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. It was sensory overload like I'd never felt. Granted, I also had underestimated my hunger so that by the time my first shift of work was ending, I realized my blood sugar was borderline to the emotional-about-everything stage.

But seriously, this is all so new. It's all so very good, though, and I can feel myself molding as I absorb it all. I started my job yesterday and wasn't late and managed to iron my clothes properly before arriving. I have my own corner of the office with a computer and the entire office has windows on all sides that looks down out into downtown Seattle. I met every person in the office yesterday and they were all so kind and enthusiastic. I'll find out more next week what my real duties at my internship will be so I'll have more to say on that later. However, I am truly excited about all that I'm going to get to do with such inspiring people who all come from different backgrounds and share similar passions.

After getting home last night at 10pm, I woke up early this morning to venture a few cities away from Seattle to hang out with Dillon. I went to Ikea for the first time, ate at Ikea for the first time, and had much needed caffeine before getting back on the Lightrail to get to Seattle so I could make a ferry. However, and this was maybe my favorite thing to happen so far in Seattle, I missed my ferry entirely so I spent the late afternoon by myself meandering downtown Seattle alone. I whipped out my camera and took a few pictures. The sun came out and for that hour it seemed like the city slowed down a bit on a Friday afternoon. It was glorious.

It's absolutely incredible to be in the middle of everything all the time and that's probably the most shocking part of this entire experience; to be in the middle of such a culturally strong city. I don't feel like I am becoming a brand new person from it all, rather, I feel like I'm adding to myself and that's what will happen while I'm here. I'm seeing and experiencing so many things I haven't before, or at least, seeing them celebrated like I've never seen. Between figuring out the city and navigating it all with a full time internship and enjoying all that it has to offer, I'm drooling over how good it all is and good life is going to be for the next few months.